Daily Stock Watch: Chameleon Colossus

Happy new year, everyone, and welcome to 2018’s first edition of the Daily Stock Watch! Pro Tour Rivals of Ixalan is just around the corner, so we could expect some movements from Modern staples (and sleepers alike) in the coming weeks. Today, I’ll feature one of the cards that could play a vital cog in a deck where it will be one of the best role players off the board. It’s also experiencing some monetary gains over the past few days, and we could say that it has something to do with its inclusion in some new brews from Modern deck innovators.

Chameleon Colossus is one of those cards that could prove to be the game changer in certain Modern matchups after boarding. I think it’s a tad bit too slow to be included in the main deck, and Modern hasn’t really evolved into a world that’s dominated by black decks, so something like this seems farfetched from happening for now. It’s worth noting that Death’s Shadow variants have made its presence felt in the format at one point, and people have resorted to big mana decks to flip the metagame around to their favor. These big mana decks are almost always green-based, and having a reliable creature that could brick wall a humongous Death’s Shadow while evading arguably the format’s best removal in Fatal Push is a big plus.

However, we don’t have enough data to say that Chameleon Colossus is already a shoo-in for these green decks. What I have here is a funky Land Destruction deck that could certainly use the strength of the Colossus, as it also has the tools to make it a very reliable mana sink that could certainly win games in one unprecedented turn.

Based on the Utility Checker, 2.4% of winning decks over the past two months have used an average of 1.2 copies of the Colossus on their sideboards, and this is something that should rise if this trend continues. The Commander 2015 printing of this card just reached its all-time high of $3.46 today, which we can again attribute to the presence of the authenticity seal in this version, and the diminishing number of available copies from an already two-year old product in C15. It’s no pushover once it hits the field, and it is also starting to get consideration in other Modern decks such as Elves and GW Aggro variants. As a changeling, it is able to fit in nicely to decks that have cards with lord-like effects, which allows it to push harder as a big-bodied threat that has an extra upside if you have the mana to double its attack power.

Sideboard Rivals

There are only so much slots in the sideboard for extra creatures in green decks, and these four crits get the nod more often than Chameleon Colossus based on the Utility Checker. Obstinate Baloth and Thragtusk are most utilized because of their life gain ability, while Tireless Tracker started making its way to decks because of it’s size and ability to draw cards. Scavenging Ooze has been a green staple, and this is probably what Colossus would like to establish in the near future. The Modern metagame is ever-evolving, and I like the chances that this card has in being included on the next big deck of the format.

Right now, big online stores such as Star City Games, Card Kingdom, Channel Fireball, and TCGPlayer are either out of stock, or running low on stock of the card. The few remaining copies out there are mostly that of the From the Vault: Twenty edition, and it’s a foil so I don’t really like the idea of grabbing copies of that card. Try trading in or acquiring this card from other players if it’s possible. There’s very little room for error on this one, and I have a feeling that this will be one of the most overachieving cards from the upcoming Pro Tour.

And that’s it for the first edition of the Daily Stock Watch for 2018! See you again tomorrow, as we check out a new card that should be on the go, or good enough for speculating. As always, feel free to share your opinion in the comments section below. And if you want to keep up with all the market movement, be sure to check in with the QS Discord Channel for real time market information, and stay ahead of the hottest specs!

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Rob has been playing Magic since 2004 and is a control player by nature. He was able to crack the top eight of the 2011 Nationals in the Philippines, and he has multiple Grand Prix top-64 finishes. He's a finance junkie nowadays, but he still dreams of winning a Pro Tour someday.